(Written by Geneva – gid617)
As a good number of LEGO builders have demonstrated throughout the years, LEGO is not just a child’s toy, but it can also be a stunningly beautiful medium of art. Mike Doyle has already proved this with his two previous books in the Beautiful LEGO series – Beautiful LEGO and Beautiful LEGO 2: Dark – and he set out to do it again with a third installment; Beautiful LEGO: Wild! With a focus on the beauty of the plant and animal kingdoms, Mike takes us all the way from elaborate tree-houses to dino dioramas to sea otters to red-eyed tree frogs! 🙂
Here is the official description of the book: Scenes from nature spring to life in Mike Doyle’s latest curated collection of LEGO art, Beautiful LEGO: Wild! From botanical marvels to adorable critters—as a sea otter family made from 3,500 LEGO pieces—every page is sure to delight the artist and naturalist in all of us. Interviews with LEGO masters from around the world give you a glimpse into the inspiration behind these incredible works of art. Discover amazing landscapes, insects, mythical creatures, and more, all within the enchanting pages of Beautiful LEGO: Wild!
To star off, Beautiful LEGO: Wild! has the same size and style as the previous two books in the series (all published by No Starch Press), so they make a very nice collection. The cover is soft but durable, with a gorgeous display of LEGO creations on both the inside and outside of the front and back covers – a great way to give you a taste on what this book is about. At over 220 pages the book is quite substantial, and is very satisfying to flip through. The author did a great job avoiding clutter in arranging the pictures and with enough white space around them for contrast. I felt that on some pages there was maybe a bit too much empty space, but overall the book is very tastefully done. It is certainly a beautiful collection of some of the best creations by the LEGO fan community – exactly what you would expect from a book of this nature.
By far, the greater amount of pages are dedicated to pictures of LEGO creations, but there are also a few interviews with builders like Sean Kenney and Tom Paulsom (who submitted the original design for the #21301 LEGO Ideas Birds set). On the whole, however, the reader is allowed to admire the models with a minimal amount of text interfering.
Beautiful LEGO: Wild! is arranged by topic, though I will admit that I don’t quite understand the order, except that it progresses from plants to animals. Categories include living with nature (tree houses and such), trees, other greenery, blooms, fruits birds, artificial creatures, horses, cats, dogs, ocean creatures, bugs, beast, mythical animals, and more. I was pleased to recognize several creations that I had previously admired, and was also amazed at the excellent builds I had never seen before.
To me one of the best pages of the book is of course the one I was published on (featured above – mine is the one in the middle). But the talent demonstrated throughout all the pages is amazing. Even for me, as a builder who has been creating MOCs (My Own Creations) for years, there were comparatively few models that had any of the typical nitpicky trouble spots my eyes are used to noticing.
I looked through Beautiful LEGO: Wild! very thoroughly right after receiving it, but subsequent perusals haven’t been boring either – there is just so much to explore in this book! Also, if you make your own LEGO creations, this book is excellent to give you inspiration and ideas for your own models. Although there are no step by step instructions, the pictures are large enough to learn some interesting building techniques, or clever piece usage.
Overall, I’m very glad to have a copy of this book, and would seriously recommend Beautiful LEGO: Wild! as a fantastic example of just how beautiful LEGO creations can really be! It is a perfect gift for LEGO fans, or anyone who enjoys unusual artwork. The book – along with the two previous LEGO books in the series – are available on Amazon. Here are the links:
- BEAUTIFUL LEGO BY MIKE DOYLE ON AMAZON
- BEAUTIFUL LEGO: DARK BY MIKE DOYLE ON AMAZON
- BEAUTIFUL LEGO: WILD! BY MIKE DOYLE ON AMAZON
I hope you found this review helpful if you have been considering getting any of Mike Doyle’s LEGO books. And if you already own any of the books in the series, feel free to share your own thoughts and review in the comment section below! 😉
And you might also like to check out the following related posts:
Nice looking book. I have the first one and I have been very happy with it, so I might pick up this one as well. That’s great that you had your MOC featured in the book!
Congrats on your MOC being featured! You haven’t posted in a while,
this was a really well done review.
Yeah, school writing is catching up with me and I also sometimes have trouble thinking of things to write about!
Thanks!
I love MOCs like this! Congrats on your MOC being featured! Oh Admin have you seen this? Isn’t this the first time a black eye is on a flesh toned figure?
Hm… no, I haven’t seen that one. Pretty cool. I’m not sure about black eye on a fleshy… I used to be able to keep track, but now there are so many fleshy heads I don’t remember. I think this is also the first time that armor piece is two colors, isn’t it? And also the first time a two-toned arm is printed?
Yes, yes it is. I’m sooo excited (i preordered two)!
My daughter’s preview of the book https://goo.gl/I6R3H2
Congrats Thita! I have his first book and it’s amazing:-) Can you go into detail about how you were selected by the author? Were you selected and then built your creation? Did your MOC already existed and they featured it/took pics? How did it all happen? Thanks so much!
The article is not written by me. It was written by Geneva. I will ask her to respond to your question. 🙂
Mike ran a contest on Flickr (which I know he also did for Beautiful LEGO: Dark, so presumably he will do the same if he does another book). It wasn’t a one winner contest; he just picked whatever he liked and I happened to be among them. However, I’m sure he also contacts lots of builders, generally as far as I know for builds that have already been built though he may ask (or the builder may offer if he/she wasn’t quite satisfied with the original) for a re-build/re-photography. That’s about all I know on the subject. 🙂
The page before the table of contents of this book I think listed all those who were selected as a result of the contest (a relatively small amount of the total builders). Mike posted the “call for entries” on his flickr account, so if you don’t follow him, you might want to!
Oops, my bad:-) Thanks Thita! and Geneva very cool, thanks for answering!
Thanks everyone for the congratulations! 😀
Congrats you have a cool design